This guide walks a first-time user through the modern setup flow to quickly get a GDPR-compliant banner running, based on the latest WebToffee’s GDPR Cookie Consent plugin interface.
Step 1: Scan for Cookies (Mandatory First Step)
As a first step, start by scanning the website for active cookies. Cookie scanning automatically identifies and categorizes cookies, helping you quickly understand which cookies need consent. To do this,
- Go to Cookie Consent > Manage cookies> Cookie Scanner.
- Click Scan now to identify all cookies used on your website.
- Once scanning is complete:
- Cookies are auto-grouped into categories (e.g., Necessary, Analytics, Marketing).
- If no match is found, the cookie is placed into the “Others” category for manual review. Admins must manually categorize cookies that don’t have a match in the cookie dictionary.
- You can manually edit or reassign cookies from the Cookie list > Edit Cookie dialogue box.
This step ensures accurate classification and consent management.
Step 2: Script Blocking
- The plugin automatically identifies and blocks many common third-party scripts (like Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, etc.) using predefined patterns.
- When the plugin cannot automatically block a specific script, you must add a script-blocking pattern under Manage cookies > Cookie list > Edit cookie. Follow the steps mentioned in the article: Manually block scripts, to block scripts manually.
Step 3: Configure Cookie Banner
Configuring the cookie banner involves activating it on your site. Optionally, geo-targeting allows you to show the banner only for people from a region that requires consent.
- Go to GDPR Cookie Consent > Cookie Banner.
- Choose your applicable law (e.g., GDPR, US state law).
- Click on Enable the cookie banner.
- Optional: Restrict banner to specific regions by setting the Geo-target banner option (e.g., show only in the EU).
Step 4: Customize Layout and Content
In this step, you can customize how consent notices appear, define the banner layout, control messaging, and adjust user interaction options.
- Layout Tab:
- Choose banner type (Banner, Box, Popup) and position.
- Choose preference centre layout.
- Content and Color Tab:
- Edit the banner message and button labels (Accept/Reject/Customize).
- Customize styles to match your website branding.
Step 5: Add Revisit Consent Button
Adding a revisit consent button gives your users the ability to change their consent preferences at any time in the future. To include a revisit button,
- Go to Content & Color > Revisit Consent.
- Enable and the Revisit Consent icon and customize (position and text on hover).
- This allows users to change consent at any time.
Step 7: Save and Test
- Clear your site cache.
- Open your site in private/incognito mode.
- Confirm:
- Banner displays properly.
- Consent preferences work.
- Non-essential cookies are blocked until accepted.
Explore Advanced Features
- IAB TCF v2.2 Compliance – Supports industry-standard consent frameworks, ideal for publishers ensuring regulatory compliance.
- Google Additional Consent Mode – Seamlessly integrates with Google services to manage additional consent signals for better ad personalization.
- Google Consent Mode v2.2 – Supports both Basic and Advanced modes to help manage user consent effectively while maintaining compatibility with Google services.
- Microsoft Clarity Consent Mode – Enables privacy-compliant behavioral tracking by respecting user consent before activating analytics tools.
- UET Consent Mode – Enables Microsoft Advertising Universal Event Tracking (UET) to respect user consent signals. This ensures that marketing tags and conversion tracking are triggered only when users provide the required permissions.
- Google Analytics Consent Mode – Allows Google Analytics to collect consent-compliant data.
- Consent Report – Gain insights into user consent interactions with downloadable reports for audits and compliance tracking.
- Cookie Policy Page – Automatically generates a customizable cookie policy that stays up to date with your banner settings and legal requirements.
- Multilingual Support – Displays the consent banner in the visitor’s preferred language for a localized experience.
Matt Tunney
May 29, 2025
Hi
Do you have any guidance on 2 items
1. The correct implementation of google tag manager when using the plugin
2. How to trigger firing in google tag manager based on cookie consent updates
Thanks
Hema
July 11, 2025
Hello Matt,
Thanks for reaching out. Follow the steps mentioned in the artice : Configuring google tag manager, to achieve the same.
Shane Cousins
November 13, 2024
Is there any way of importing the current setting from the legacy version to the new?
Hema
November 21, 2024
Hello Shane,
Thanks for reaching out. The current settings can not be imported to the new version. However, you can roll back any time by simply reinstalling the legacy version.
Roy
May 19, 2024
Just to confirm after i buy this plugin i need to buy also the CookieYes? So i have 1 time payment and monthly payment from CookieYes , I’m i Correct ?
Hema
May 28, 2024
Hello Roy,
Thanks for reaching out. Cookieyes is a different service. We use Cookieyes’S service for cookie scanner, apart from that there is no connection with Cookieyes. You don’t have to take a separate Cookieyes subscription.
Ian
March 4, 2024
How do we configure Google Consent V2 using your plugin?
Hema Ranjan
March 19, 2024
Hello Ian,
Thank you for your patience. We apologize for the delay in our response, which was caused by ongoing maintenance on our website. Kindly follow the steps mentioned in this article to stay compliant.
Frederic Bergman
March 2, 2024
I would like to transfer the plug in with all the data to a new/revised site. Can you advise me of the best way? I do not know if my license is for many sites, or just one. I will ultimately close the original site (stop the hosting of its domain), and use a newly updated (different domain).
Thank you!
current site: mamala.co.il
new site: mamalamaternity.com
Hema Ranjan
March 20, 2024
Hello Frederic Bergman,
Apologies for the delayed response. Our website was undergoing essential maintenance to ensure optimal performance. We appreciate your patience and understanding. Kindly contact customer support for assisting in site migration.
Alan
February 9, 2024
olá,
É possível disponibilizar a configuração de cookies para o usuário selecionar direto na página ao invés de popup?
Hema Ranjan
March 20, 2024
Hello Alan,
Apologies for the delayed response. Our website was undergoing essential maintenance to ensure optimal performance. We appreciate your patience and understanding.
Yes, you can do that. Kindly add the following short code to the page where you want to display the cookie selection.
Short code:
[cookie_popup_content]
Chipur
December 11, 2022
Great plug-in, comprehensive article. I likely missed something, but…Okay, I created Cookies Policy and Privacy Policy pages. Where are they or where do I put the links so they can be accessed? Thank you…
Mark
December 15, 2022
Hi @ Chipur,
Greetings from Webtoffee!
The policy generator has a ‘create cookie policy page’ button at the bottom. When you click on it, a new page will be created in the pages menu of the WordPress dashboard. You can edit the page later from there as you normally do for any page.
steven
November 8, 2022
Hello Sirs,
I write here (because I’ve just realized the support page is for premium user, which I’m not)
I’ve set up and use your plugin, and I think it works very good and it is simple to handle. But I have a strange issue on mobile version view.
Seems the cookie bar cannot be resized under a certain length, so in mobile view, there is a white column on the right.
You can easily check it on http://www.juliesejournetphotography.com from a mobile phone, or simply resizing the window.
Do you have any tip for me?
I cannot figure out where I was wrong.
Thank you.
steven
Mark
December 4, 2022
Hi @ Steven,
Greetings from Webtoffee!
We examined the website and discovered that the problem is with the width of the site, not with our plugin. Everything will work well if you modify the width of your site because the plugin automatically alters the banner size based on that parameter.
Michael Clegg
August 14, 2022
Hi team,
If GeoIP is set to on, then if a country outside of the EU zone visits my site (so they don’t see the popup) then are cookies automatically accepted and allowed, along with any scripts defined in ‘Head scripts’ in the cookie category section?
And would the script blocker not be enabled for non-eu countries in this scenario (where GeoIP is true)?
Thanks,
Mike
Rob
June 9, 2022
Hello. When looking at your guide there should be a enable consent logging button at the General / Other tab but its not showing for me.
This is how it loks for me :
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ewpw0uidt3rxu02/chrome_DhYOoi9sMq.png?dl=0
Does this have to do with me having the free version or?
Mark
July 24, 2022
Hi Rob,
Greetings from Webtoffee!
You are using a free version plugin which is why this option is not available for you. This documentation is for the premium version plugin. If you wish to have a consent log please consider buying a premium subscription.
Axel Nilsson
May 18, 2022
Hi
We have implemented the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin on a customers webiste. Everything seems to work fine regarding how cookies are set AFTER the user have interacted with the cookie consent pop-up. But there is one issue. Google Analytics (GA) cookies are set on the accessed web page before the user have interacted with the pop-up. We have found out that in order to achieve auto blocking of GA cookies we have to buy the premium version. Fair enough. My question:
If we buy the premium version and activate auto blocking of GA cookies, will the page(s) visited before the user interacts with the pop-up and accepts “Analysis” cookies, be tracked and send data to GA? Landing pages are often high priority in analysis reports. Loosing “first hit” traffic data would be disapointing…
/Axel
Mark
May 26, 2022
Hi Axel,
Greetings from Webtoffee!
Our plugin can block Google Analytics scripts both in the free and premium versions. In the free version, please add GA script via our plugin category.
To implement this, go to GDPR Cookie Consent > Cookie Category > Analytics > Edit > Script section and add the scripts so that the plugin will block them until the user gives consent for the Analytics category or given acceptance for all the cookies.
Whereas in the premium version you can go to GDPR Cookie Consent > Script Blocker and turn on the Google Analytics script blocker by assigning it to the Analytics category so that the script added to your site will block automatically until the user gives consent for Analytics or given acceptance for all the cookies. If you want to hide the cookie banner on any of the pages, we can do that by providing you with a code snippet so that it will not block the cookies at this page. This you can find in our documentation.
frank lewis
April 19, 2022
i was searching for this information and here i found similar to this. It’s very helpful and informative.
Dennis
January 11, 2022
Hello,
I have set to just display the cookie law as a banner at the bottom. Nevertheless the script already creates a cookie called “cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary” before any user action is happening. This is really problematic, because in Europe with the DSGVO setting a cookie before a user accepts it is restricted even if it’s just for the cookie banner itself. I have found no option to turn this off. But there should not be any cookie set before the user has accepted the basic usage of cookies! How can i disable this to be conform with the DSGVO?
Mark
January 19, 2022
Hi Dennis,
We are here to assist.
The plugin cookies are necessary for the working of the plugin, specifically, to save the user preference based on category and as such, it is not possible to block those cookies. It is 100% GDPR compliant because those are necessary cookies. You have to mention this in your cookie policy though and list the cookies and their functionalities.
Fabio Ferrari
September 29, 2021
Hi, how can I set a localized message inside the Cookie Banner? I’m using Avada theme with WPML with 2 languages enabled. I managed to make two different Cookie Policy pages, but don’t know how to fix the initial message. Thanks
Mark
October 5, 2021
Hi Fabio,
Please refer the WPML setup guide and follow the instructions.
Jillian
August 23, 2021
Hi,
I have the premium version and want to scan automatically for cookies but I don’t see that option in the cookie scanner tab to enable that. How do I do so?
Mark
August 26, 2021
Hi Jillian,
The cookie scanner option will be available inside the GDPR Cookie Consent menu on the left sidebar in WordPress admin. Kindly ensure that you have activated the license.
Josh
July 2, 2021
I can see that you can customise the cookies bar, but can you customise the buttons on the ‘cookies settings’ pop-up?
Afonso Mac
June 2, 2021
Hi, please help me understand one simple thing. The fact that the user accepts and consents, when the page reloads it won’t bring problems with the adsense account, if the user takes an action and the page reloads? thank you for reply. thanks.
Mark
June 5, 2021
Hi Alfonso,
If you are having trouble with auto-reload on accept, you can turn that off. The current version of the plugin supports running the scripts without page reload.
Max
May 12, 2021
Hey! I love the Plugin and I love how it blends in with the css of my preexisting site.
Can you help me with one thing though? When i try to change the button labels or the text wich is displayed when clicking on cookie settings is not the one i set in the widget menu. It displays the default labels and texts and not the ones i wrote in the widget menu.
Thanks !
Mark
May 14, 2021
Hi Max,
Please submit a ticket here with a screen recording showing the issue.
John
March 17, 2021
Interesting solution, thanks for that. I didn’t think about using plugin, I wanted to build this notification on my own. I have found here
https://dev-bay.com/cookies-notification-bar-only-with-html-css-and-pure-javascript-step-by-step/that it is also possible to save cookies notification acceptance in Session Storage instead Cookies. What is a better approach?Ana
February 23, 2021
I am trying to add the “Read more” with link to my policy (I use parallel Polylang) and I have tried to add shortcode in the Cookie bar message, but it doesn’t appear on my page.
I also tried to do the same for the reject button but it doesn’t work either. This is my Cookie bar message (without these shortcodes).
We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies.[cookie_settings margin=”0px 10px 0px 5px”][cookie_button]
Thank you
Mark
February 26, 2021
Hi Ana,
After adding the shortcodes, kindly make sure to clear the site cache.
danish
November 9, 2020
Hello, I have installed plugin – GDPR Cookie Consent but this is creating a issue for me, after I click on Accept Button, The popup again appears on load, Can you please provide me the solution for that ?
Mark
November 12, 2020
Please submit a ticket in the support forum with more details and site URL.
yuri
October 16, 2020
Hi when a user click on GDPR checkbox of contactform7 this data is storage?
Mark
October 17, 2020
Please reach us via the support page and clarify the query.
Nishok Tressler
September 12, 2020
There is no option to add scripts to the cookie list.
Mark
September 14, 2020
Which version of the plugin are you using?
Rakesh Sharma
August 7, 2020
Hello
Is this working on amp sites, i tried the plugin but it says script removed and no consent pop us is displayed on my amp website.
Please guide me through the steps to configure it on my amp website.
Thanks
Rakesh
Mark
August 14, 2020
The plugin is not currently AMP compatible.
Angus Ware
July 17, 2020
Once the scanner has been used and the cookies imported, do the scripts need to be manually entered for the cookies added to the cookie list? This is unclear.
Mark
July 17, 2020
If the scripts are among the ones listed in the script blocker settings page, then they will be blocked automatically. You won’t need to add the scripts against each cookies.
Kitty
July 11, 2020
Great plugin!
Where can I edit the text that appears in the tabs “functional cookies” and “non functional cookies”, after clicking on cookie settings in the cookie consent? The place where visitors can choose to enable or disable non-functional cookies… I managed to edit the text above it, but not the words in the tabs. It´s in Dutch now,but I want to put it in English. Kind regards.
Mark
July 16, 2020
Hi,
Go to GDPR Cookie Consent menu > Cookie Category > Click edit on the category you want to edit and you can add the description from there.
information
October 23, 2018
How can I locate my Head script in my WordPress dashboard in order to put my analytics script in my Head code?
Mark
October 24, 2018
Hi,
You can access your theme’s header file from WordPress dashboard under Appearance > Editor > header.php .Same can be accessed via inside your theme directory under wp-content/themes/
info34
June 19, 2018
Should i remove the analytics script from my website and put it in the head script field?
Safwana
June 19, 2018
Hi info34,
Yes, you should put the analytics script in the Head script field for it to be rendered only when the user gives their consent.
Bobby
October 18, 2020
I don’t have the head script option
Mark
October 19, 2020
Are you using the premium version of the plugin?
Emanuel Chirtes
May 31, 2018
Does this plugin save the user’s data in admin?
Safwana
June 1, 2018
Hi Emanuel,
The plugin does not save any user-related data.
Serge-Jérôme
May 31, 2018
Great plugin WordPress for GDPR compliant. Thank you.
Safwana
June 1, 2018
Hi Serge-Jérôme,
Thank you for your high opinion.